Imagine the Possibilities: Tech Conference 2025

Estimated reading time: 1 minute

As we approach the 25th anniversary of IPC APEX EXPO, excitement buzzes around the annual Technical Program. Coming off a tremendously successful program in 2024—co-hosted with ECWC16 and with a significant global presence—organizers wanted to match that same level of engagement. In this interview, Stan Rak of SF Rak Company and Udo Welzel of Robert Bosch Mobility Electronics, co-chairs of the Technical Program Committee (TPC), highlight efforts of the volunteer committee to bring another quality technical program to life.

Marcy LaRont: We’re coming off a highly successful program in 2024. How has the TPC worked together this year and how are submissions of technical papers and posters for this year’s conference?

Stan Rak: I am happy to say we are well represented again this year with TPC members from seven countries and across all different industries. We have 25 members on the TPC, including Udo and myself, which nicely corresponds to the 25th anniversary of the conference. We have some additional expertise from the component manufacturing industry, representatives from Intel and NXP in the semiconductor space, and an EMS company, Flextronics, in the mix this year.

We added Palash Vyas, a recent PhD graduate from Auburn University who co-authored the Best Poster in the 2024 Technical Conference. He works in the automotive electronics industry now. We know he has a good connection with academia, and he was excited to be involved. We also have a returning member, Dr. Laura Cohen of Continental, who has valuable expertise in automotive, aerospace, and energy systems.

LaRont: Have you been receiving a steady flow of papers?

Welzel: It is a similar situation to most years: There is always a period of concern because most contributions tend to come in toward the end of the deadline, but this time, we were very positively surprised. We had anticipated some negative headwinds due to the overall slowing economy in several different countries and that it would cause submissions to be low, but we had about 100 abstract submissions, which is very good. Not all of them made it through, which is part of the normal reviewing process. Julia Flynn, Stan, and myself, as well as our IPC colleagues, were positively surprised when we had the final count.

To read the rest of this article, which originally published in the March 2025 SMT007 Magazine, click here.